Objective: Basic seminological criteria were analyzed to assess a percentage of fertilized oocytes during classical IVF procedure.
Design: A prospective study.
Materials and methods: One hundred fifty semen samples from patients undergoing IVF were studied. Sperm morphology in raw semen and after its selection on a density gradient (6 structural defects of a gamete were taken into consideration), sperm concentration and motility parameters according to WHO criteria were analyzed.
Results: Patients achieving fertilization had a significantly higher median proportion of normal forms, concentration of sperm, motility grade A, B, C and significantly lower median values for head defects, acrosomal defects, and motility grade D, than those who did not have fertilization. A marked improvement of sperm morphology after density gradient selection was also noted. Apart from significant correlations obtained for selected semen parameters with proportion of fertilized eggs, logistic regression analysis showed that the predictive value for the IVF oocyte fertilization, using normal morphology of sperm before and after selection, grade A, B and C of sperm movement in a raw semen accounted for 62.4% of fertilization.
Conclusion: It seems that to obtain a better efficacy of IVF prognosis, functional tests have to be added to routine semen parameters.